On his return he purchased the field of Ephron, near Kirjath-Arba, and the cave of Machpelah, of which he made a burying-place for his family* Kirjath-Arba, the Hebron of subsequent times, became from henceforward his favourite dwelling-place, and he was residing there when the Elamites invaded the valley of Siddîm, and carried off Lot among their prisoners.
* Gen. xiii. 18, xxiii. (Elohistic narrative). The tombs
of the patriarchs are believed by the Mohammedans to exist
to the present day in the cave which is situated within the
enclosure of the mosque at Hebron, and the tradition on
which this belief is based goes back to early Christian
times.
Abraham set out in pursuit of them, and succeeded in delivering his nephew.* God (Jahveh) not only favoured him on every occasion, but expressed His will to extend over Abraham’s descendants His sheltering protection. He made a covenant with him, enjoining the use on the occasion of the mysterious rites employed among the nations when effecting a treaty of peace. Abraham offered up as victims a heifer, a goat, and a three-year-old ram, together with a turtle-dove and a young pigeon; he cut the animals into pieces, and piling them in two heaps, waited till the evening. “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him,” and a voice from on high said to him: “Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.... And it came to pass, that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” Jahveh sealed the covenant by consuming the offering.
* Gen. xiv. 12-24. 2 Gen. xv., Jehovistic narrative.
Two less important figures fill the interval between the Divine prediction of servitude and its accomplishment. The birth of one of them, Isaac, was ascribed to the Divine intervention at a period when Sarah had given up all hope of becoming a mother. Abraham was sitting at his tent door in the heat of the day, when three men presented themselves before him, whom he invited to repose under the oak while he prepared to offer them hospitality. After their meal, he who seemed to be the chief of the three promised to return within a year, when Sarah should be blessed with the possession of a son. The announcement came from Jahveh, but Sarah was ignorant of the fact, and laughed to herself within the tent on hearing this amazing prediction; for she said, “After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” The child was born, however, and was called Isaac, “the laugher,” in remembrance of Sarah’s mocking laugh.* There is a remarkable resemblance between his life and that of his father.** Like Abraham he dwelt near Hebron,*** and departing thence wandered with his household round the wells of Beersheba. Like him he was threatened with the loss of his wife.
* Gen. xviii. 1-16, according to the Jehovistic narrative.
Gen. xvii. 15-22 gives another account, in which the
Elohistic writer predicts the birth of Isaac in a différent
way. The name of Isaac, “the laugher,” possibly abridged
from Isaak-el, “he on whom God smiles,” is explained in
three different ways: first, by the laugh of Abraham (ch.
xvii. 17); secondly, by that of Sarah (xviii. 12) when her
son’s birth was foretold to her; and lastly, by the laughter
of those who made sport of the delayed maternity of Sarah
(xxi. 6).
** Many critics see in the life of Isaac a colourless copy
of that of Abraham, while others, on the contrary, consider
that the primitive episodes belonged to the former, and that
the parallel portions of the two lives were borrowed from
the biography of the son to augment that of his father.
*** Gen. xxxv. 27, Elohistic narrative.
Like him, also, he renewed relations with Abîmelech of Gerar.* He married his relative Rebecca, the granddaughter of Nâkhor and the sister of Laban.** After twenty years of barrenness, his wife gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob, who contended with each other from their mother’s womb, and whose descendants kept up a perpetual feud. We know how Esau, under the influence of his appetite, deprived himself of the privileges of his birthright, and subsequently went forth to become the founder of the Edomites. Jacob spent a portion of his youth in Padan-Aram; here he served Laban for the hands of his cousins Rachel and Leah; then, owing to the bad faith of his uncle, he left him secretly, after twenty years’ service, taking with him his wives and innumerable flocks. At first he wandered aimlessly along the eastern bank of the Jordan, where Jahveh revealed Himself to him in his troubles. Laban pursued and overtook him, and, acknowledging his own injustice, pardoned him for having taken flight. Jacob raised a heap of stones on the site of their encounter, known at Mizpah to after-ages as the “Stone of Witness “—G-al-Ed (Galeed).*** This having been accomplished, his difficulties began with his brother Esau, who bore him no good will.
* Gen. xxvi. 1—31, Jehovistic narrative. In Gen. xxv.
11 an Elohistic interpolation makes Isaac also dwell in the
south, near to the “Well of the Living One Who seeth me.”
** Gen. xxiv., where two narratives appear to have been
amalgamated; in the second of these, Abraham seems to have
played no part, and Eliezer apparently conducted Rebecca
direct to her husband Isaac (vers. 61-67).
*** Gen. xxxi. 45-54, where the writer evidently traces
the origin of the word Gilead to Gal-Ed. We gather from the
context that the narrative was connected with the cairn at
Mizpah which separated the Hebrew from the Aramæan speaking
peoples.
One night, at the ford of the Jabbok, when he had fallen behind his companions, “there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day,” without prevailing against him. The stranger endeavoured to escape before daybreak, but only succeeded in doing so at the cost of giving Jacob his blessing. “What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Jacob called the place Penîel, “for,” said he, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” The hollow of his thigh was “strained as he wrestled with him,” and he became permanently lame.* Immediately after the struggle he met Esau, and endeavoured to appease him by his humility, building a house for him, and providing booths for his cattle, so as to secure for his descendants the possession of the land. From this circumstance the place received the name of Succôth—the “Booths “—by which appellation it was henceforth known. Another locality where Jahveh had met Jacob while he was pitching his tents, derived from this fact the designation of the “Two Hosts”—Mahanaîm.** On the other side of the river, at Shechem,*** at Bethel,**** and at Hebron, near to the burial-place of his family, traces of him are everywhere to be found blent with those of Abraham.
* Gen. xxxii. 22-32. This is the account of the Jehovistic
writer. The Elohist gives a different version of the
circumstances which led to the change of name from Jacob to
Israel; he places the scene at Bethel, and suggests no
precise etymology for the name Israel (Gen. xxxv. 9-15).
** Gen. xxxii. 2, 3, where the theophany is indicated
rather than directly stated.
*** Gen. xxxiii. 18-20. Here should be placed the episode
of Dinah seduced by an Amorite prince, and the consequent
massacre of the inhabitants by Simeon and Levi (Gen. xxxiv.). The almost complete dispersion of the two tribes of
Simeon and Levi is attributed to this massacre: cf. Gen. xlix. 5-7.
**** Gen. xxxv. 1-15, where is found the Elohistic version
(9-15) of the circumstances which led to the change of name
from Jacob to Israel.